


Bender and Fry

by Prawnperson



Category: Futurama
Genre: Alcohol, Angst, Cooking, Drunk Kisses, First Meeting, Fluff, Holding Hands, Hugs and Cuddles, Hurt/Comfort, Love Confessions, M/M, Obligatory au where Fry is a robot and Bender is a human, Snuggling, hangovers, suggestive in some parts!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-12
Updated: 2019-05-16
Packaged: 2019-10-08 21:25:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 3,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17393996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Prawnperson/pseuds/Prawnperson
Summary: Neutopia





	1. Chapter 1

Fry stumbles awkwardly out of the suicide booth, digital eyes adjusting their settings to the near blinding sunlight until he can actually focus on his surroundings. As he gathers his senses, he turns his attention back to the human he saved mere moments ago. Asimov’s law, and all that.

He looks like he’s in his mid-twenties, dark skin and tatty black hair that looks like it hasn’t been washed in a month. Braces on his teeth, too. Amber eyes. Stubble. A few ear piercings. Fry scans over his outfit, a grey turtle neck that has clearly seen better days and jeans in much the same condition, the ensemble finally ending in a pair of chunky black boots. Significantly shorter than Fry, but then again, significantly shorter than most people.

“What?” He asks, finally gauging the robot’s gaze. It takes the bot all of a half second to reach out his bendy orange arm, the grill of his mouth turning upwards in a way that could only be described as endearing, despite being mildly unnerving.

“Hi, I’m Fry.” He beams, moving his hand slightly and indicating for the other to shake it. “Ben...” the human replies, cautiously taking the hand pushed before him. Fry shakes his arm until Ben is nearly sure it’s going to fall off before leaning back and placing his hands to his hips.

“Ah, I see that! You’re from Tijuana, yes?” Fry’s smile turns brighter, literally, the lights set into his teeth going up a shade. Bender, on the other hand, makes an expression of horrified confusion. “Yeah, How do you know?? You some kind of robot programmed to make racist jokes?”

“No, silly! I can tell a lot of things just by looking at you! It’s all down to my new database!” Fry replies, rapping his knuckles against his chest. “Your full name is Benjamin Bending Rodríguez, you’re from Tijuana in Mexico, you’re 24, you’re blood type is A-positive, You’re Bisexual, y-“

Ben quickly claps a hand over Fry’s mouth, knowing full well it will do nothing to silence him but trying anyway. “Not so loud, idiot! I don’t want any goon tryna’ steal my blood!”

Fry pushes Ben’s hand away and makes a zipping motion across his mouth before gently taking his wrist and pinching the skin there. Ben hisses and flinches, But Fry’s grip is surprisingly strong for such a lanky robot, and his hold only tightens the more Ben squirms. “You’re dehydrated.” He says simply.

Ben makes another horrified expression before tugging hard enough to rip a normal human’s hand off. “Get the hell offa’ me, trashcan!” He yelps, his voice pitching a little higher than he’d like, and Fry finally releases his grip.

“Well, I have nothing else planned for today. Wanna go get drunk?.” 

“That’ll dehydrate you more.”

He scoffs and pulls his sweater cuff back over his wrist, not wishing to show he easily he bruises, and begins to shift around Fry. “...If you want to, you can come with me. If you want to.”

Fry makes a buzzing noise that Ben can’t help but jump slightly at and begins walking with him. “Oh, I’d love to!” He smiles warmly and Ben grimaces again, partially because Fry seems so sickeningly sweet and partially because he finally recognises the cross welded to Fry’s chest, signifying his status as a cheap, club-grade med bot. No wonder he was so worried about all that dehydration shit.

“You should shower.” Fry says, staring ahead at the road and not bothering to act like he’s sorry as Ben gives him an offended glance. “All this New New York dirt might explain why your skin’s so oily.”

“Shut up, rust bucket.”


	2. Chapter 2

Fry is hugging him. Unusually warm metal arms wrapped around an unusually cold, fleshy body. Bender squirms, trying hard to pull away, but Fry just squeezes him tighter, babbling excitedly about their last delivery. Bender finally grabs him by his shoulders, shoving him back.

“Oh, Bender, that was incredible!! Let’s do it again!”

The rest of the crew looks down at them from the break room to the ship’s hangar, where Fry is still clinging to him. Bender flushes bright and smiles awkwardly up at the before turning back to Fry, scowling.

“Don’t stay stuff like that! People...get the wrong idea.”

Fry tilts his head to the side, clearly confused, resting his hand on the minute curve of Bender’s hip. He squawks and tries desperately to move before the crew sees them again, but he hears Amy mutter a small “oh my God...” before giggling. He blushes harder but can’t bring himself to pull Fry’s hand off for a few seconds.

Again, Fry looks curious, and grabs Bender’s face, examining him with a nearly frightening intensity. He squishes his cheeks and giggles lightly.

“I don’t get it. You claim that you hate my touches, yet you always do this!”

He points to Bender’s blush and Bender can see from the corner of his eye that they’ve gathered a small audience, namely Leela and Amy. He finally decides enough is enough whenever Fry traces his thumb over his bottom lip, and he bolts from his embrace to their lockers.

Whenever he gets there, he plops down onto the large wooden Bench in the middle, holding his head in his hands as his heart thumps in his chest. He isn’t sure why Fry always does this to him, but he doesn’t like where it’s going. 

But maybe he does a little bit.


	3. Chapter 3

“Bender!! What are you doing?”

Fry grabs the human carefully by his shoulders, not too hard but with enough force to be noticeable. He shakes him gently and Bender glares at him, alarmed and a little amused.

“I’m eating, dummy. You know that.”

He swallows his current mouthful while Fry stares at his plate in shock, horror painted on his plain metallic features. It’s pizza, plain pepperoni, and he bites into his slice again, thick strings of cheese stretching between it and his mouth. 

“You’ll make yourself sick!”

Bender laughs and puts his food down, swallowing again and staring straight ahead at the tv. Fry stands for a few more seconds before getting annoyed, perching next to him on the couch and looking him sternly up and down. It takes him all of a second to reach out and pinch at Bender’s middle, the other clearly not taking to kindly to the touch.

“Woah, hey, what’re you doin’?!”

“You’ll get sick.”

He repeats, using his other hand to take the styrofoam plate from Ben’s lap, placing it on the floor below. He keeps pinching, prodding, seemingly assessing, and whenever he grabs at his hips Bender jumps to the other end of the couch, flustered and warm.

“Fry, unless you’ve turned femme overnight, I’d rather you keep your paws off my underwear.”

He growls the last few words, but Fry remains unfazed, crossing his arms and tutting like a disappointed mother.

“You may have some substantial muscle, but if you keep up a diet like that you’re gonna croak it at 40.”

Bender scoffs and picks his dinner up from the floor. It’s gone stone cold and he grimaces, rolling his eyes and placing it down again with an overly dramatic sigh. Now he’s going to have to eat rice crackers or some shit, he’s certain. But Fry did say he had muscle-

He gets broken from his thought before they even begin whenever Fry nudges him.

“I understand from Leela that you’re...able to cook....to an extent.”

Bender looks up at him for a minute, and Fry tilts his head towards the kitchen door, smiling expectantly.

“Well, c’mon, what are you waiting for? I’m sure it’s bound to be better than this.”

He vaguely gestures to the pizza and Bender laughs. He clearly has no idea what he’s just gotten himself into.


	4. Neutopia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Neutopia

Bender stares down at him-at herself, wondering for a split second if this is actually real. Sure enough, her body is now decidedly female, soft curves hidden under baggy clothes, her shirt sliding off her shoulders. She finally looks around to see that the rest of the crew, as well as the passengers, are all in the same boat. Leela is now considerably taller, sharper along the jaw, angrily yelling at the rock monster who’s put them in this situation. The professor looks like a demented grandmother, and Amy sports broad shoulders and stubble.

She stops abruptly, however, whenever she spots Fry, staring down gleefully at her new body. She looks adorable, grinning widely as she turns and plants her hands on the swell of her metal hips. Her chasis now looks like a lighter shade of orange, and the little rounded spike of metal meant to represent a hair horn now looks softer, more like human hair. Small ginger curls of it fall over her shoulders. Bender-Coilette, again, she supposes, let’s her eyes linger on her chest for a second or two longer than she really should. Something flickers low in her stomach, a weird, hot fluttering, but she can’t focus long whenever she finally notices Zapp Brannigan, of all people, standing next to her.

“Well, hello from the neck down.”

He’s leering at her and, ignoring the fact that she was doing the same just a second ago, Coilette feels her blood boil, balling her hands into fists. 

Who does he think he is?

Fry turns away, smiling, clearly mortified. She fidgets with her hands behind her back, scuffing her foot-cup on the ground, and lets out a little giggle.

Coilette’s heart almost bursts at the sound and she wonders how the hell she’s going to make it the whole way home on an enclosed spaceship with Fry without doing something she’ll regret.


	5. Chapter 5

“Hey, hey, hey, Bender-Ben-Benjamin, look at me.”

Fry has both hands firmly placed on Bender’s shoulder’s as the shorter human sways in front of him, giggling and hiccuping every few seconds. 

“Just exactly how sloshed are you?”

He knows that his companion can’t handle as much alcohol as him, understandably, but he’s always been able to hold his drink, maybe even a little better than some of his few robot pals.

Except for tonight.

He isn’t sure what it is, but for some reason Bender is absolutely off his head, and the fact that Fry is now having to run checks on him in the corner of a dark bar isn’t helping.

“I’m brickfaced...”

Ben slurs, smiling up at Fry. He looks so much smaller when he’s drunk, vulnerable, and he keeps staring at him with half lidded doe eyes. Fry makes a small noise and snaps his fingers right next to Ben’s ears, waiting for him to startle. He doesn’t, just keeps smirking, and worry creeps over him.

“Listen, Ben, I’m going to take you home, and I’m going to get you some water while you get changed. Then I’m going to put you to bed, ok?”

He’s talking to him like a little child, but Ben doesn’t seem to listen. He’s still gazing at Fry like he’s hung the moon and the stars in the sky. Maybe it’s the alcohol digging up the feelings he’d just barely managed to suffocate and keep hidden on a daily basis, but Fry looks so-

Before Fry can process what’s happening Bender leans forward and kisses him, gently, on the mouth plate. It’s a passionate kiss, at least on Ben’s part, the way he moves his lips and pulls him in closer. Fry can only stiffen in mortification as he feels the eyes of everyone in the bar on them. Everyone thinks they’re robo. Homosexual robo. Romo. Fry’s face burns and finally, Ben passes out against him, slumped forward against his chest.

He stares down at the sleeping man, shocked, unable to think.

It’s certainly a new development.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bender makes a confession and Fry learns something

“Ugh, my head...”

Bender groans, thumping his head against the table as fry kneads soft circles into his back. Every tendon his metal fingers brush over is knotted and tense, and Bender seems to dissolve under the gentle touch. 

“Why you bein’ so gay today?”

Bender means it teasingly, but Fry laughs nervously and grips his bare shoulders a little too hard. He wonders for a moment what’s up, and then the robot starts.

“Ben, it’s about something you did last night...”

The grip on him grows tighter, to the point where it’s almost painful. 

“You.....oh boy....you...kissed me.”

There’s a second of silence that stretches on for an agonising second, Fry feeling guilt gnaw at his inner mechanisms. The room is stock still, the atmosphere heavy, almost suffocating. And then Bender laughs.

He keeps laughing until it finally seems to all click into place, the drunken haze clearing enough to make out the fuzzy memories. His arms on Fry, kissing him warmly, sparks flying between them as he moves his lips. The metal on his braces sends brilliantly numbing shocks down his spine and he thumps his head down to his arms.

“Look, it’s nothing to be ashamed of, but I want to know something.”

Bender hears shuffling behind him and whenever he finally dares to look up Fry is sitting in the chair opposite. He reaches out and ever so gently pries one of his hands out from his folded over arms, clasping onto it.

“I know that you aren’t the most...faithful of people.”

Fry begins, gesticulating wildly as his eyes dart around nervously. Bender feels his face heat up, stomach knotting up. This is it, the conversation he’s been dreading, all of his skeletons well and truly out of the closet. As well as him.

“I know that this may all be a game to you, some drunken dare from Amy or-whatever-whoever-but I have to ask you, or else I’ll never be able to-“

He knows what he’s about to ask and he tunes out the rest of his jittery babble, the filler. He doesn’t know how he’s going to respond, what words will come out of his mouth without his say so.

“Do you like me? As more than a friend?”

“YES!”

Fry’s eyes go wide at Bender’s immediate response, but he can feel his hands shaking, see the clear flush covering his whole face and running down his neck. His eyes look a little bit glassy and he swallows thickly before clearing his throat.

“I-I mean...yeah....I do.”

Fry wonders if the residual alcohol in his inferior human system is making him so blunt. He looks vulnerable, upset, like he’s about to cry. Fry hushes him and grips a little tighter at his hands. Something in his circuits flutters whenever Ben looks up at him with wide, brown eyes, leaking ever so slightly and allowing tears to roll down his face. He’s never seen him like this before, and it scares him, because as much as he wants to be his protector, as much as he wants to keep Ben safe and happy, he knows it’s really the other way around.

“I’m in love with you Fry. I know that you’re in love with Leela, but I just can’t help it...I love you.”

He stares down at the table, breathing in through his nose so as to not sob audibly. He isn’t sure what he’s expecting, slurs, insults, weird medical jargon for what’s essentially straight conversion therapy. Maybe he’ll slap him, or leave him, tell everyone at work. Whatever it is, he braces himself for the worst.

He doesn’t expect the best.

Fry lunges out across the table at an alarming speed, cupping Bender’s face and pressing their mouths together. His chassis is warm to the touch and Bender’s eyes go wide, shaking silently. Fry almost pulls off, worried that this is some kind of terrible joke he didn’t understand, but at the very last second, Ben finally reciprocates, pulling Fry in until he’s flat on his knees on their table top and Bender’s standing on tip toe to reach. His human draws back after what seems like an eternity, gasping down great lungfuls of air, trembling. Fry’s mechanical heart nearly bursts, everything in him going to fast and running too hot. 

“You too...I love you too!”

Ever Fry, he begins to grin, slowly going from stock still to bouncing up and down. 

“That’s what that is, Ben! That feeling in my chest! That’s you! That’s love!”

Excitement floods his system, and he feels high on artificial adrenaline, looping his arms around Ben’s neck and kissing him again. He is still out of breath and shocked and terrified, and yet still pulling Fry of the table to press them tight together. Fry gives him a chance to breathe and peppers his face with little shocks, giggling out happily.

“That’s what it is, Ben! It isn’t Leela, it’s you!”

“It is?”

“It’s you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about this one! It’s kinda long and very cheesy!


	7. Chapter 7

Whenever Fry wakes up, System booting up to face the day ahead, he immediately feels something awry. There is a warm little mass pressed against his back. A comforting weight at his side that periodically nuzzles into him, breathing softly into his neck.

He rolls over with as much gentleness as he can muster and finally faces the makeshift space heater. The space heater makes a grunt and burrows his face into the mass of blankets, still sound. Fry chuckles and pets his head.

He remembers it now, not that it takes that long anymore, since his systems got all that syrup cleaned off. Yes, Bender has confessed to him yesterday. Late morning, early afternoon, hungover and tearful and passionate. He looks so much different when he’s asleep, calm and safe and, at least to Fry, so cute.

They had spent most of the day kissing. Holding hands as Fry lovingly pressed their mouths together after every giggled word of appreciation. Ben always responded breathlessly and it of course didn’t take him very long to pull Fry into the couch in typical Bender fashion. Fry had continued the soft touches, only stopping whenever he felt Bender squirm after he peppered little kisses all over his neck. Fry had asked why, curious as to his sudden increase in movement after applying pressure to that point. Sure, he’d accidentally stumbled upon Bender sucking at his particular sleeping partner’s jaw a few times, but never understood why. Only whenever Ben repeated the action on him did he understand.

If it felt that good on a robot’s metal, then it must feel sublime on sensitive human skin.

Things had gotten hazy after that, cuddling, giggling, pretending to watch TV together just as an excuse to spend more time snuggled up on the couch. It had been wonderful, and perfect, and they would have kept it up forever were it not for Ben’s constant yawning and droopy eyelids. Fry had gently carried him to his bed, which was no real mean feat. It wasn’t that Bender was exceptionally heavy,He never was a very strong robot. Ben had grabbed his arm drowsily and asked him to come into bed with him, and so, both unaware of the implications that sentence could have had to an outsider, he did, relishing in the warmth of the smaller human tucked up comfortably on his chest. Bender had begun to snore like a baby a few minutes later. At least, Fry assumes that’s how babies sound. He isn’t exactly sure, all humans seem about equally fragile and equally precious. 

Well, maybe the one curled up beside him is a little more of both of those things.

Speaking of which, Ben stirs a bit, blindly groping for some part of Fry to latch onto again. He evidently already misses the solid presence to hold, and Fry happily obliges, moving back so Bender can cuddle in again, whining sleepily. Fry feels his heart swell with the almost unbearable urge to protect his human, and he cradles him once again.

He’s so boned.


	8. Chapter 8

It’s strange, Bender thinks, sitting up with Fry curled up next to him on their bed one night.

Never in all of his time on earth would Bender ever have thought he would end up with anybody he was truly in love with. Especially not a robot, no sir. He would have scoffed at the mere notion of it. He was of the belief that nobody was ever really in love, even if deep down his reasoning was quite the opposite.

Even if deep down he felt like he wasn’t worthy.

So, when he mulls this over as he so often does, away in his headspace with only the dull background noise of Elzar on the TV and the whirring of Fry’s internal fans as a distraction, it dawns on him just how lucky he is. How entirely lucky he is to have Fry in his life. There’s no other way to describe it really, because sure as hell Bender couldn’t wouldn’t be with him without it.

“Bender...”

Fry suddenly pipes up, gently tapping at his chest, eyes almost entirely shut and not focussing at all on the tv.

“Would you get me a drink, please?”

Bender rolls his eyes and carefully pushes Fry off, shuffling his way to the kitchen in the late afternoon light. He finds himself smiling as he does so, and he’s almost embarrassed with himself for seemingly being so warmed up bu doing something as simple as getting a beer for his partner.

“You want anything else?”

Bender calls, shutting the fridge door with his foot as he carries in four bottles, two in each hand. Fry flutters his optics when he sits down again and stretches his arm up to cup his stubbly jaw.

“A kiss?”

Bender pretends to be annoyed when in fact his heart is, in reality, full to the brim with affection, and tilts his head up the small distance to reach Fry’s mouthplate. Immediately, low, familiar, warm tingles flow into Bender’s lips, gentle and sweet and better than any kiss he’s ever shared with anyone before, just like everything Fry does.

Bender isn’t sure they’ll ever surpass the cupcake stage, and honestly? He’s ok with that.

“Te amo, Fry.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hc Bender reverts back to Spanish whenever he gets overwhelmed by certain intimate emotions so...have this.

**Author's Note:**

> Oh, Yeet?


End file.
